Rocky V

1990

Drama / Sport

Synopsis

Reluctantly retired from boxing and back from riches to rags, Rocky takes on a new protege who betrays him; As the champ's son must adjust to his family's new life after bankruptcy.

Rocky Balboa is forced to retire after having permanent damage inflicted on him in the ring by the Russian boxer Ivan Drago. Returning home after the Drago bout, Balboa discovers that the fortune that he had acquired as heavyweight champ has been stolen and lost on the stockmarket by his accountant. His boxing days over, Rocky begins to coach an up-and-coming fighter named Tommy Gunn. Rocky cannot compete, however, with the high salaraies and glittering prizes being offered to Gunn by other managers in town.

Tech specs

Movie Reviews

Reviewed by Margaux15 / 10

A wonderful movie about father and son

Sometimes it gets annoying to me how critical people are of the Rocky series. It's like they feel like they have to say terrible things about it, probably because people can be so negative that they can't find it in themselves to believe that a 'less than intelligent' person with heart, drive and passion can move mountains and achieve success.

I personally thought this, and every other Rocky movie, was fabulous. I thought Sage Stallone was amazing in his debut as Rocky's son. Also, this movie showed a more real side of boxing, the business side, with exploitative agents and corrupt business tactics.

Some may think the Rocky series is an unrealistic saga, but Rocky IV proves it isn't. The person we saw struggle, fight, and grow rich is now back to square one...minus all the money but still with the heart.

I saw this movie and it brought tears to my eyes. It shows how wrapped up we can become when trying to achieve our goals through others and how it affects people around us.

I thought it was an interesting storyline and was a lot better than people give it credit for.

Reviewed by jonnyabomb7 / 10

Give it a chance.

For some reason or another, certain movies achieve a reputation as being worse than they actually are. Rocky V is one such film that is affected by the  as I call it  Phantom Menace syndrome. This refers to Movies that are interesting in their own way but fail to live up to the hype or expectation of previous instalments, or simply do not follow the formula that everyone derided for being too predictable anyway. For me, Rocky V is the best of the sequels to the 1976 original, as it does not follow in the Rocky tradition of simply having a bigger guy to fight than in the previous film. Rocky IV was a great spectacle but it was more comical than anything to think that an entire Russian government could be funding one over-sized boxer who could kill a man with one flurry of punches, not to mention turn a blind eye to illegal doping. The fifth instalment in the anthology goes back to the more personal story of the character, and deals much more realistically with the aftermath of loss and the twisted nature of professional prize fighting.

Stallone recruited his own son for the role of Robert (Rocky's son) and the result is one of the best father son relationships ever committed to celluloid. The scene where Rocky realises that he has been a negligent father and must make his peace with the boy is affectionate and heartfelt and could never been as realistic without the real life history behind these two people.

OK, there are some flaws and I am not too naive to suggest this movie is worthy of an Oscar. The casting of Tommy 'The Machine' Gunn could have been better as real life boxer Tommy Morrison sometimes appears wooden and is never really threatening enough to Rocky for the final fight to have any tangible tension. Similarly, aside from the final tune of Elton John's 'The measure of a man' the music does not measure up to the awesome and inspirational anthems that have accompanied previous instalments. Any Flick in the early nineties that used rap music as its primary soundtrack has ultimately dated for a modern audience.

My advice would be to watch this movie in full before you judge it. There are some sad moments in this fall from grace story as well as few goofs in terms of weak acting. But it's not as bad as people say and as the sixth instalment nears completion it's about time everyone got back into the Rocky spirit for one more round.

A good film. 7/10

Reviewed by Ryan Austin10 / 10

Rocky V, terribly under-rated

I have rated this movie as a 10 which will make most readers think I don't have a clue what I'm talking about. To be honest, I don't believe this movie is a 10, but I feel I need to give it that bit extra due to the very low rating this movie has polled on this site. Even though it will make next to no difference to the overall rating of the movie, it will at least make me feel a little better. I have watched the rocky series probably 100 times each and if I had anything to do with making them, I would feel offended that Rocky V is rated lower than Rockys III and IV. I feel that, going on best to worst, the order should be The original on top, followed by the second, then the fifth, then the third, with number 4 coming in last. The original Rocky is one of the best movies ever made, no question. By the second film, Stallone took over directing duties and done a decent job with it, apart from one or two corny things thrown in to it. By the third one however, all common sense in the series went out the window right from the opening montage. The fourth Rocky should have been titled Rocky 80's. If anyone over the age of 12 truly loves that movie, you should be ashamed of yourself. The first movie wasn't a sports movie, it was a drama which happened to be about a journeyman boxer getting to live his dream by fighting for a heavyweight championship. Rocky IV is just a big stupid fight scene, with the rest of the movie just filling in time. Why would Rocky turn down his prize money for this fight? Yes, he was doing it to avenge his friends death, but why not avenge Apollo, and make 10 million at the same time which he could at least give to a charity? The training sequence is stupid, why would there be any gyms at all if running up a mountain was better than all the best equipment available, mixed with steroids. The fight scene itself, which was really all they had, was obscenely ridiculous. There isn't a referee in the world that wouldn't have stopped the contest 3 rounds in. Rocky gets dropped a good 10 times that fight but keeps getting up, yet when he drops Drago once, the show is over. He somehow gets an entire nation to change from spitting on him at the start, to loving him, all in under 30 minutes, and all by punching there national hero in the head. And don't get me started on the speech he gives in the middle of the ring at the end, I'm cringing just thinking about it. The reason Rocky 5 is not so popular, is that people were looking for a sequel to Rocky 4, not another sequel to Rocky 1. Number 5 breaks away from the 80's crap brought to us by the previous 2 sequels. It goes back to its roots of a real story, and they brought the original director back for it. This again has made a drama set in the world of boxing, rather than just a 'boxing movie'. And for people who are just after the action, it actually has more boxing scenes than the other movies, its just Tommy Gunn for most of it instead of the title character, who by the way, was played by Tommy Morrison, who went on to win the World Heavyweight title in real life. The script is solid, the characters have depth and it underlines the corruption that is ruining the sport of boxing. If you really are a fan of either film or boxing, rent the movie again and tell me i'm wrong